


Entangled

by Medie



Series: Someday [3]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-20
Updated: 2010-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-07 09:58:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They aren't through...they never will be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Entangled

**Author's Note:**

> for [](http://georgeh.livejournal.com/profile)[**georgeh**](http://georgeh.livejournal.com/) for the [ OC/Genderbender Ficathon](http://www.livejournal.com/users/dragonsinger/271578.html) much thanks to [](http://azarsuerte.livejournal.com/profile)[**azarsuerte**](http://azarsuerte.livejournal.com/) for reading this over.

The political aspirations of Alexandra Luthor had been the worst kept secret in Metropolis. The fact that the CEO of the wildly successful LexaCorp had her eye on becoming the first female president of the United States was widely known and believed by most to be an achievable goal. Lexa had a skill for manipulation and political machinations that many of the women who had considered it before her lacked. Her ambitions were also tempered by patience. The years of battling with her father had taught her the value of knowing when to make a move and when to step back. She had put that knowledge to use in the political arena quite efficiently and bided her time while making very small moves and very careful steps. When she finally did offer up herself as a potential candidate for the presidency, the timing could not have been better. She was certain of that as she'd arranged it down to the last millisecond.

It was no surprise that she won by a landslide.

Not even to her most staunch opponent...

"Congratulations... Madam President."

Standing in the Oval Office, the newly-inaugurated president turned with a slow, satisfied smile, to face the man standing just inside the door. "Why thank you." She responded graciously, inclining her head in acknowledgment of him. Lexa walked out around the desk and advanced on Superman with the air of a predator hunting her favorite prey. Unintimidated by him, she didn't stop until they were standing painfully close together. "Come to warn me to behave myself?" She challenged almost cheerfully. "Or..." With a tilt of her head, she reached out to trace the S on his chest. "Celebrate?"

He stepped back and she laughed, the laughter full of scorn. "What's the matter, Superman? Afraid of a harmless woman?"

Superman gave her a look of deep sadness. "You know what's the matter..."

She frowned darkly and turned away. "And so do you." She could feel his eyes on her and for a moment she entertained the idea that he'd added a new power to his collection. The ability to stare into her soul. If, that was, she still had one. "And it isn't going to change so why don't you both do us a favor, alien, and leave."

"I can't do that." He murmured, reaching for her, his fingers brushing the material of her designer suit. Finest fabrics in the world. Precisely what he would expect her to be wearing. "And you know why."

Lexa spun out of his touch and lifted a brow. "Your stubborn refusal to accept the obvious?" Her lips twisted into a mocking smile. "Yes, I know that only too well. It's a problem that's dogged us both for years." What had led them to precisely where they now stood. "Neither one of us has ever quite managed to shed our fathers' influence." She allowed her gaze to wander the circular room in which they stood. "No matter how far we go or hard we try. Best to accept that. I have."

"Have you?" Superman asked, his eyes taking on the pleading look she associated with the boy he'd been. The man that, out of that uniform, she'd always thought he was.

"I have." She affirmed coldly. "Now, get out."

He didn't move and neither did she.

"Lexa..."

The pleading voice made her turn to face him, hard eyes meeting his. "We've been through this," she said cooly, her voice deathly calm. "I don't know who you are anymore. Leave."

She turned again but this time he caught her by the arm, spinning her back to face him. "We're not through here, Lexa." He insisted, refusing to let her go. "And you know me." He looked down at the suit then at her. "You're the only one who sees through this thing. You remember..."

"Who you used to be." She agreed. "The key part of that sentence? Used to be. You aren't him anymore..." A faint tinge of pain in her eyes accompanied her next words and, for just a moment, he saw behind the protective walls she'd built around herself. "What you've become is alien to me. A stranger." Lexa pulled herself free of his hands, taking advantage of his reaction, and backed away. "Get out, Cl..." She bit off the name and frowned darkly, correcting herself. "Get out, Superman...before I call the Secret Service." With a shadow of her usual smirk, she moved to pour herself a glass of water, "I'm considering having them use kryptonite bullets in their guns." She turned back to face him and he saw the water in the glass tremble. She was shaking. "Afterall, the only threat I really have to worry about isn't exactly human now is he? They need to be suitably equipped to be able to deal with that threat." She brought the glass to her lips, taking a long, fortifying swallow.

He watched numbly as she regained her composure, pulling it about her by sheer act of will. He'd broken through, however briefly, and the man inside the superhero exulted at the realization. He could still reach her. However hardened Lexa had made herself, there was still a part of her that he could touch and, he hoped, that was the part she could never quite let go of. The same part that existed in him. Despite everything, all the years, all the pain, despite everything she'd thrown at him...despite even how hard he'd tried, she was as firmly entrenched in his heart as she'd ever been.

Part of him was happy to know she struggled with it as much as he did for the simple fact she was in as much pain as he was. The rest...The rest of him felt her pain as if it was his own and the weight of it threatened to crush him. "Lexa.."

"Don't." She held up a hand, forestalling his next words. "I'm not interested in your apologies or your latest set of excuses." Scorn filled her gaze. "Or are you thinking of a quick one on the desk? For old times sake?" Skimming a hand down the body of her designer suit, she drew his eye to the familiar curves of her body. "Lois not doing it for you anymore?" Her lips curved upward. "I always expected you'd grow tired of her hero worship. It has to be boring...the adoring eyes, the whispered pleas for more..." She gave an indelicate snort. "Pathetic really...I'm surprised you put up with it. No challenge, no...stimulation." A laugh fell from her lips. "You must be bored silly."

"Leave Lois out of this." Clark found his voice and realized he no longer sounded like the confident hero the world saw him as. With Lexa he could never quite keep the persona up and he saw the flare of satisfaction in her eyes as she too realized it. "She's not a part of..."

"The spectacular disaster that is us?" Lexa's brow rose up with the question and she passed him to take a seat at the desk, settling in comfortably. She looked good there. "Oh as much as I would love to leave your little fangirl out of this...I can't. She's been in this for years, hasn't she?" Leaning her elbows on her desk, she laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them. "The proverbial thorn in my side. I can't wait to see what the Planet cooks up over my victory." Pursing her lips, she considered the potential headlines. "No doubt it will have some sort of dirty little implication. That I blackmailed my way into the office...bought it." She laughed again. "The irony of that is I've never had to." She sat back, crossing her legs. "Everything I've built...people have given me freely. But then, you can understand that, can't you? They'd give you the world if you asked for it."

"I don't want the world." He countered calmly. If she could find her control in all of this, so could he. He'd learned it from her afterall. "I just want you."

"Hmm...well, we always want what we can't have, don't we?" Lexa mocked. "Cliche but so very true." She looked amused. "Perhaps it's your father I should have been listening to all these years...not mine. I'm sure Jonathan has a few humdingers, as he would say, to describe our current predicament."

No doubt she would be surprised by the fact that when it came to the mess that was his son's relationship with the newest President of the United States, Jonathan Kent was remarkably silent. Clark wasn't. His father offered no advice on the failures that his son had made with Alexandra Luthor. Empathy he got in spades, but when it came to advice or reproach there was nothing. Clark didn't need either one. He was well aware of the mistakes he'd made and the near impossibility in fixing them. "I remember a woman who once said anything was reachable if you wanted it badly enough." He looked around. "I think she's more than proven that statement."

"Some things are beyond even my reach." Lexa shrugged. "It is something I've accepted."

"No you haven't." He moved forward, cape moving about his body. "I know you better than that. I know you better than anyone else. I know the side you like to sleep on, the sound of your breath in the night, how you cry it out if I kiss that spot on your neck just below your ear and that you still dream about flying with me...I know your fears, your hopes, your dreams. I know you. The real you. Not the illusion your father's taught you to be. I know you, Lexa. I love you. I'll always know you and I'll always love you...there's nothing you can do to change that. I'll know you no matter what you do, what you say, or where you go."

She stood, keeping the desk between them. "You know nothing about me. Not anymore."

"I know everything about you." He moved, his speed so fast she hadn't the time to blink before he was at her side. "I know you want us back so bad you can barely breathe. I know your heart races when I walk in the room. I know it just like you know mine does the same. We're not over, Lexa. Not by a long shot and there aren't enough bodyguards in the world to change that fact."

He kissed her then before she had a chance to respond, to think, and she let him. This was the one truth between them. The one thing they could never disguise or twist into a lie. They clutched at each other almost desperately, as if trying to hide inside each other. If either one had been paying attention, the idea of Superman kissing the President in the middle of the Oval Office would have been enough to shock them out of it. But neither of them were and by the time Lexa's all too human lungs demanded oxygen, the fight had long since drained from her.

"We," He murmured gently, brushing his fingertips along her flawless skin, "are far from over. We never will be. Something else you might want to think about accepting."

Lexa didn't get the chance to argue. Before she even had the chance to take her next breath he was gone, curtains flapping in the breeze of his departure.

"Madam President.."

The voice of her secretary knocked Lexa from her stupor and she turned to look at him. "Yes?"

"Queen Audrey of Kaznia is on the line, ma'am." He looked formal. "I believe she wishes to discuss your speech to the U.N. next month."

"Of course, I've been expecting the call." Recovering swiftly, Lexa returned to her desk and rested her hand on the telephone's receiver. "Put her through." She commanded with more calm than she felt. The encounter with Superman - with Clark - had gotten to her and try as she might to drown him out, she could still hear his words ringing in her ears.

_'I'll always love you...there's nothing you can do to change that...'_

'We are far from over...'

He was right. She hated him for it.

But he was right.


End file.
